“Our airdrome was north of Verdun, about twenty miles back of the
American front line. Quentin had joined us June 1. He had been
instructor at the aviation school at Issoudun, and I had formed his
acquaintance there. I left Issoudun for patrol work at the front about
two months before Quentin was allowed to join us. They liked his work
at the aviation school so well that he had a hard time to obtain leave
to get into the more perilous work at the front, for which he was
always longing.
“Our regular occupation in the patrol service consisted of two flights
a day, each lasting from an hour and a half to two hours. As this
involved the necessity of going over the enemy lines, it was, of
course, extremely trying upon the nerves. I doubt whether anybody,
except perhaps the most foolhardy, ever performed this sort of work
without feeling greatly exhausted after a few hours of so tense a
strain. Nevertheless, we were often required, when circumstances
demanded it, to go aloft four or even more times in the course of
a day. This was of rare occurrence and only when the enemy showed
extreme activity and every resource at our command had to be called
into service in opposition.
“Usually a patrol consisted of three squads of from six to eight
planes, one squad going to a height of 20,000 feet, the second 12,000,
and the third 4,000 feet. They would fly in V formation, the leader
about a hundred feet below the level of the next two, these 100 feet
lower than those next after them, and so on to the last ones of the
squad, who were always the highest.”
July 14 was an exceptionally fine day for the sort of work the squadron
was doing. “We went up at eleven o’clock in the forenoon,” says Captain
McLanahan, and describes the flight and the fatal fight that followed:
“There were eight of us, all, at that time, Lieutenants—Curtis, of
Rochester, N. Y.; Sewall, of Bath, Me.; Mitchell, of Manchester,
Mass.; Buford, of Nashville, Tenn.; Roosevelt, Hamilton, Montague,
and I. As was customary, we chatted together before we went up, and
of course, planned what we were going to do. It was arranged that
Lieutenant Hamilton was to lead, and in case of any hitch to his motor
Lieutenant Curtis was to take his place in the van.
[Illustration:
© _Western Newspaper Union._